Die Stärke schwacher Kopplung: Die Visitation als kirchliches Steuerungsverfahren

Abstract

For centuries, visitations have shaped leadership and governance in the Protestant church. Historically, the visitation is based on a rather directive approach focusing on leadership and control; more recently, it has been propagated as a cooperative instrument that allows for consulting and organizational development during the visitation process. Using empirical data from four territorial churches – “Landeskirchen” – in Germany, this article explores the usage and functions of the visitation as governance instrument. We pay particular attention to the question how the visitation addresses the varying contexts and loosely coupled structures in the different church communities and how it helps integrating the single communities into the overall Protestant church. Selected concepts from organization sociology and religious organizations are used as a theoretical framework and interpretation scheme.